Government using new Ofsted framework to further their own political agenda at the cost of branding schools "inadequate&quot;.

Have just come back home angry and upset after a meeting at my dcs' school. In 2008, under the old Ofsted framework, our school was "good". They got the same judgement at the interim assessment last year and so did not have a full inspection. We have now just (in November 2012) been inspected again under the new framework and are "inadequate", a whole 2 points below our previous grade. The improvements which need to be made are in years 3, 4 and 5 in teaching, pupil progress and something else (can't remember ). The head was very honest about this and talked about the measures which will be taken.

Suddenly, tagged on to the back end of this meeting we (lots of parents attended since we got the report yesterday) were told that before the judgement had even been confirmed, the Department of Education had contacted the school with proposals to become an academy .

It seems that the new draconian Ofsted inspections are designed to find schools "inadequate" so that the Conservative agenda of dismantling the education system can be rushed through. It is glaringly obvious. Our school might (and does) require improvement in some areas but is good in lots of other areas and certainly does not deserve to be branded "inadequate" overall.

Is it the case that a school can only be forced into academy status if you are found inadequate? What I find offensive is how obvious the political agenda is. In the meantime, the human cost of being branded as "inadequate" in terms of staff morale, parent confidence and overall happiness of the children at school, is found to be of no consequence .

Someone at the meeting said that by 2015, all schools in the country will probably be academies. Whether or not this is true, if that is the governments top agenda, can they be less underhand about it instead of making us go through horrible Ofsted judgements to then force us into becoming academies.

That the school has been found to need improvement in some areas is a good thing and will provide incentive for staff to fix the problems. What is sickening is the obvious manipulation of facts to suit the government .

If anybody has any positive stories of schools becoming academies then I'd be happy to hear them!

Joan Byers, these schools were not underperforming schools which have been transformed by academy status. They are highly selective schools and academy status allows them even more freedom in their admission policies, ensuring they continue to cream off the highest achieving pupils in order to maintain their top of the table status.

"If anybody has any positive stories of schools becoming academies then I'd be happy to hear them!"

Yes... My DS's secondary school was so bad 10 years ago that people fought like cats not to send their kids there. The head was replaced, the new head turned the place around and it converted to an academy about two years ago. Is now classed as 'outstanding'. Sorry your kids are at a bad school.

When schools first become academies, they usually start off with a pot of extra money (they no longer have to pay the local authority for certain services), and there's often a new head and SMT, so you'll quite often see short-term improvements in schools that convert to academies. Am sceptical about whether they'll be sustained long-term.

Don't be fooled into thinking that outstanding schools are choosing to become academies voluntarily because it's such a good thing. At my outstanding school the head told the whole staff that there was no interest in becoming an academy and absolutely no intention of doing so. A year later we were an academy. We were forced into this by massive budget cuts, the promise of more budget cuts to come (yet I'm sure the Tories said education funding was ring fenced) and the only way for the school to not completely sink was to take control of its finances from the LA. There were still loads of redundancies and I can definitely say that the kids are getting a worse deal after our conversion, despite our conversion.

YANBU. It's lovely that you, as a parent truly understand the government agenda behind ofsted & are supportive of your school despite their Low grade. Ofsted (like Sats & league tables) are a way for each government to 'prove' how rubbish the last government was & implement their own ideas to 'turn things around'. If only the government would keep their noses out & let schools decide for themselves how best to educate children (instead of us all dancing to the tune of a dickhead minister for education who's never taught in his life) we'd have the best education in the world. X

We were outstanding in 2007, Good in 2010 and the powers that be have decided that they want us to become an academy so the lea gave warned us that the dfee might well trigger an Ofsted which will find us inadequate so we can be legitimately 'turned'!

At a recent meeting attended by my headteacher, they were told that ofsted would be failing at leasr 50% of schools they inspected. With 'targets' like that I'd say the agenda was pretty clear too OP. I hope all parents are as supportive and non judgemental as you

YANBU the government agenda is to ultimately privatise schools. First by forcing academies - two methods: change inspection goalposts is one, starve LEA schools of funding is the other.Behind the surface improvements of many academies are several factors- one is that they excluded more ( and did it in a more 'unofficial' way, eg disapplying) and took fewer FSM pupils and another is the proliferation of less academic qualifications (note the ebacc figures of many academies- if you can find them anywhere). This has been well researched and you can find the evidence in a number of academic studies. Our local state school faces massive budget cuts and is being restructured so that staff will no longer be paid tlr payments for taking on additional responsibilities. Meanwhile many academies have inverted pyramid pay structures so that there are layers of managers all on well over £50000 per year. So it's easier for them to attract good staff. Academies in the local area pay AST wages and create AST posts even for staff who haven't passed AST selection procedures. In LEA schools, AST posts are going. Again, good staff can easily be enticed to academies.Our local school has significantly increased its GCSE results consistently each year for three years, yet 2 years ago was deemed 'satisfactory' and faces another ofsted this year or next, which may well see it graded '3' again, only this time it means curtains- academy stays for a school which is clearly making great strides forwards against all the odds. Michael bloody Gove!!!!!!!!!!